E X P E R I A - A N ! N U M

Deepika was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. Her family moved to Bangalore, Karnataka, India, when she was eleven months old.^[1] Deepika is of Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin origin, and her mother tongue is Konkani.^[2] Her father,Prakash Padukone, is a retired badminton player of international repute, and her mother is a travel agent. Padukone also has a younger sister, Anisha, born on February 2, 1991.^[3]

Padukone attended Sophia High School in Bangalore, and completed her pre-university studies at Mount Carmel College Bangalore.^[4] While in high school she played badminton at the state level.^[5] However, she was not keen on pursuing a career as a badminton player.^[6]

While in college, Padukone pursued a career in modeling.^[7] She was spotted in a ramp competition in NLS, Bangalore.^{[citation needed]} Over the years, she has modeled for such Indian brand names as Liril, Dabur Lal powder, Close-Up toothpaste and Limca, and has been "brand ambassador" for the Jewels of India retail jewelry show.^[8] The cosmetics company Maybelline made her its international spokesperson.^[9]

At the fifth annual Kingfisher Fashion Awards she was awarded the title "Model of the Year".^[10] Shortly afterward, she was chosen as one of the models for the Kingfisher Swimsuit Calendar for 2006 and won two trophies at the Idea Zee Fashion Awards: "Female Model of the Year - (Commercial Assignments)" and "Fresh Face of the Year".^[11][12] Padukone was also chosen as the brand ambassador of Kingfisher Airlinesand later Levi Strauss and Tissot SA.^[13] In addition, she appeared in the music video for Himesh Reshammiya's song Naam Hai Tera.

In 2006, Padukone made her cinematic debut in the Kannada film Aishwarya opposite actor Upendra. She later made a successful Bollywooddebut in 2007 with Farah Khan's blockbuster Om Shanti Om opposite Shahrukh Khan.^[14][15] Her performance was well received, earning the actress a Filmfare Best Female Debut Award as well as her first Filmfare Best Actress nomination. Taran Adarsh from indiaFM noted, "Deepika has all it takes to be a top star — the personality, the looks and yes, she's supremely talented too. Standing in the same frame as SRK and getting it right is no small achievement. She comes as a whiff of fresh air!"^[16] Padukone was then seen in Siddharth Anand's romantic comedy Bachna Ae Haseeno opposite Ranbir Kapoor and alongside Bipasha Basu and Minissha Lamba. The film, which released on 15 August 2008, performed reasonably well at the box office. Her next film Chandni Chowk To China, released on 16 January 2009, and was a critical and commercial disaster. Padukone's fourth release Love Aaj Kal, released on 31 July 2009 and proved to be one of the biggest hits of 2009.^[17] Her first release in 2010 was Excel Entertainment’s Karthik Calling Karthik opposite Farhan Akhtar.

Padukone was last seen in Sajid Khan’s Housefull alongside Akshay Kumar. The movie was a commercial hit. Her future projects includeYash Raj Films' Lafangey Parindey, Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey directed by Ashutosh Gowarikar, and Kunal Kohli’s Break Ke Baad co-starring Imran Khan.

In 2009, Deepika started writing weekly columns for HT City, the lifestyle supplement of Hindustan Times. These columns appear online on social network, Desimartini.^[18]

In March 2008, Padukone began dating Ranbir Kapoor, her co-star from the film Bachna Ae Haseeno (2008).^[19] The couple broke up in November 2009.^[20]